By Michael Adams
Austin Sports Journal

Dripping Springs senior Grace Rabb was a little overwhelmed by the size of the crowd Saturday at the UIL swimming and diving state championships at the Lee & Joe Jamail Swimming Center at the University of Texas.

“I swam at the Minnesota meet my freshman year, but it was nothing like this,” said Rabb, who moved to Dripping Springs last summer.

While the crowd may have been overwhelming, the future University of Florida Gator impressed the rest of the Class 6A girls field on her way to being named the girls swimmer of the meet and winning two gold medals.

Her first impression was breaking a 17-year-old Class 6A and state record in the 200-yard individual medley set by Westlake’s Mary Beck in 2008. Her time of 1 minute, 56.4 seconds was nearly four seconds faster than second place Avery Collins of Keller, the second place finisher.

Rabb’s day was far from over.

Several hours later, she swam to a gold medal in the girls 100-breststroke with a time of 53.01 seconds, just a half-second shy of claiming her second state record.

Rabb finished her day anchoring the Dripping Springs’ girls 400 freestyle relay and helping the Tigers to a fourth-place finish.

Photos from the state meet

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Bowie’s Rowan Cox breaks 6A record

On a day when multiple state and national records were broken, Bowie junior Rowan Cox claimed his own and set a goal to break the state and possibly the national record next year.

Cox’s big day culminated by setting a new 6A record in the boys 100 butterfly in 46.19 and a gold medal in the event. He broke Prosper’s Jacob Wimberley’s record of 46:63 set last year.

Cox was a one-tenth of a second off the state record set in 2022 by Connor Foote of Alamo Heights.

Moments later, Cox won a silver medal in the boys 100-backstroke, finishing in 47.28 behind John Simmons of Humble Atascocita.

Girls notes and medalists

Gold

Ella Mongenel, Cedar Park senior – 50 freestyle

Brook Frushour, Leander sophomore – 100 backstroke

Grace Rabb, Dripping Springs senior – 200 individual medley, 100 backstroke

Silver

Brook Frushour, Leander sophomore – 100 butterfly

Ella Mongenel, Cedar Park senior – 100 freestyle

Abbey Amato, Anderson junior – 100 breaststroke

Westlake (Lillian Allison, Celest Dunegan, Lila Klocek and Lucy Gilbreath) – 200 freestyle relay

Bronze

Lauren Lucas, Cedar Park junior – 200 freestyle

Westwood (NamAnh Troung, Grace Xiang, Sophia He and Violet Hewett) – 200 yard individual medley

Bianca Hunter, Westlake junior – 1-meter diving

Sophia He, Westwood senior – 100 butterfly

Vandegrift (Alex Orris, Elizaveta Pozhenk, Sophia Nguyen and Hannah Seal) – 400 freestyle relay

Notable: Westlake was the top girls team from the Austin Metropolitan Area, placing fifth overall. Keller won the girls championship followed by Southlake Carroll and The Woodlands. … Dripping Springs finished sixth, Vandegrift finished seventh and Westwood finished eighth. … McCallum junior Iris Burns-Trahanovsk placed fifth in the girls 1-meter diving finals. … Anderson senior Hadley Dodson placed fourth in the girls 200 individual medley and swam the staring leg of the 200 medley relay team, who also finished fourth.

Boys notes and medalists

Gold

Georgetown (Roger Henson, Troy Reed, Marcus Pineiro and Maddox Azuma-Hall) – 200 medley relay

Rowan Cox, Bowie junior – 100 butterfly

Silver

Kai Funaro, Rouse senior – 50 freestyle

Justin Shi, LASA junior – 100 backstroke

Raphael Wang, Westwood senior – 200 individual medley, 100 breaststroke

Rowan Cox, Bowie junior – 100 backstroke

Bronze

LASA (Justin Shi, ZJ Hays, Isaac Trulove and Auggie Sefcik) – 200 medley relay

Georgetown (Kaden Alarocon, Marcus Pineiro, Maddox Azuma-Hall and Roger Henson) – 200 freestyle relay

ZJ Hays, LASA senior – 200 individual medley, 100 butterfly

Kai Funaro, Rouse, senior – 100 freestyle

Wesley Gettys, Round Rock senior – 500 freestyle

Aaron Gordon, Vandegrift senior – 100 backstroke

Max Laine, Westwood sophomore – 100 breaststroke

Notable: Keller easily won the 6A boys team state championship with 265, while Klein and Vandegrift finished second and third, respectively. … Vandegrift’s 200 medley relay team finished fourth, just one-tenth of a section shy of the medal stand. … After a strong start with a gold medal in the 200 medley relay, Georgetown only reached the medal stand one more time.